The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1887-06-16
NORTHERN DEMIGoDS UNDER
REVIEW.
What Dom Piatt Says of the "Sav
iors Of the Country"
Wilmington (N. Co. Star.1


Wilmington (N. c. STAR
Dom Piatt has book just out tha;
will be widely read and will be much
talked about. In the North it will be
criticised, as it knocks down
some of the popular idols and leaves
them lying amid the rubbish. 1t is as
bold, saucy, candid sort of book,
Judging from some extracts we have
seen, and it will make the idolaters
of Grant and Sherman grind their
teeth and spit their venom. He calls
his book "Memories of the Men Who
Saved the Union" 1t will be noticed
that the author does not say "Who
Put Down the Rebellion" Piatt has
too much sense for that. Besides, as
"Don Mfr says, none but the "under-
bred" speak of Southern rebels.
The truth of the war is gradually
coming to light. The fair men in the
North are beginning to tell the facts
as they were. Piatt, Wilkinson, and
Swinton to a considerable extent, tell
the truth. The books heretofore writ
ten to glorify the North have teemed
with falsehoods and perversions.
Grants book, the sale of which is SO
extraordinary, is romance tissue
OF misrepresentation, truth suppressed,
and exaggeration. Sherman's work is
as fabulous as Baron Munchausen.
These two men had an axe to grind.
They had doubtful regulations to
bolster and to do this they twisted the
facts, suppressed the truth, manufac-
tured numbers and invented occur
rences.
Dom Piatt is a writer of striking
qualities. He has the very style re-
quired in a dashing, slashing, eloquent
book. He knows how to 60 through
the Pantheon of Northern gods and
distinguish between the false and the
true.
Whom do you suppose he regards
as the real saviors of the Union1 The
John Brown crowd with one voice be-
lieve Grant and Sherman of course.
But Mr.. Piatt knows better. He says:
"The monument to Lincoln has not
yet been built. When it is, the COL
umn that holds aloft the form of our
greatest man of that trying period,
should have supporting the base four
bronze figures of Chase, Seward, STAN
ton and Thomas. And SO will history
in the hearts of the people group those
to whom we owe our existence as a
nation"
Our readers would doubtless like to
see what the brilliant writer in the
North has to say of Southern soldiers
aid their immortal leader. Here it is ::
"For two years they kept an army in
the field that girt their borders with a
fire that shrivelled our forces as they
marched in like tissue paper in fame.
How these men fought the world will
never know, for it cannot be told. =
* The North poured in its noble
soldiery and they fought we'll, but
thei- broken columns and thinned
lines drifted back upon our capital
with nothing but disaster to tell of the
dead and dying, the lost colors, and
captured artillery. y But this
violence spent its fury on the North.
x The Contederacy reached the
zenith Of its fortunes at the battle OF
Gettysburg. 1t went down as rapidly
as it had risen, but it went down
fighting"
Of Gen. Lee he writes:
"It is strange what magic fingers
about the mouldering remains of Viz
ginia's rebel leader. His very name
confers renown upon his enemies.
The pure white hands are folded over
heart that was so grand in its emo
tions that his life seemed that of &
saint, and his deeds made so sacred Z
bad cause that a revolt rose to the
dignity of great war"
Piatt knows what a tremendou:
sham and counterfeit of greatness art
the two soldiers Sidney Johnston
whipped under the gunboats at Shiloh
We copy portion of an interesting
editorial We clip from an exchange OIL
Piatt's book. 1t is from the pen 0
Mr.. ]. R. Randall, author of an,
Maryland" and other we'll know.
poems Mr.. Randall says in hi
paper, the Anniston Gala. Hot Blast
i Thomas helped save the Union be
cause, on two memorable occasions
at Chickamauga and before Nashville
he saved the army and the cause
1.-The Confederacy," says Col Piatt
"was never SO near success as at tn
time when Sherman's army took AT
lanta and Grant was driving in tn
enemy at Richmond. 1t was to tn
Confederates the darkest hour tha
. precedes the morn, only owing t
George II. Thomas that morn neve
f dawned."
, 1t is curious fact that the Souther
5 cause was lost principally because
t Lincoln, the Kentnckian, Stanton, ii
: North Carolinian, and Thomas, Il
: Virginian. Out of the South's ow
lloins splang the men who laid her los